HILDELITH'S POV
I tossed the last of the Sol Weapons to the side and stretched. I bloody loved smithing, especially when I got to hold the metal in my hands and heat it with Primordial Fire like the Delwarf while smashing into it with my new hammer. Maybe it was the smashing part I liked.
I didn't understand what the description Akasha showed me meant. The hammer was sturdy, it was powerful, and it was Primordial Ice and Fire. What did she mean it was for only smithing? I chuckled as I shook my head while bringing up the new items.
First was Heavenly Gold. The thing had this annoying light to it that even heating didn't dull, I could still feel and see its glow through the white-hot light of the Primordial heat. Firefrost pommeled the ingot into the necessary shape. Even as I worked I could see Thargrim working on the Celestial Bronze. Beating it into armor.
It was quite lovely to learn the ways of blacksmithing from The Delwarfs but it wasn't the same as when they did it. I could see the fires of passion that lit up in their eyes as they pounded away. It was why and how I made them. What was the point in creating something to forge when that thing didn't love to forge?
I knew the skills, and the techniques gotten from them. But I lacked the passion. The only reason I was excited to make these items myself was due to the lore and legends I wished and wanted them to carry.
So I pounded into it. With each strike, I could see these weapons being used. I imagined them holding strong unlike the Sword of Murre had done for me. I imagined them leaving a lasting mark on any entity its wielder could not kill and brutally ending those its wielder could.
It was the same thoughts I had with the Sol weapons. And it was the same I carried into all the items I crafted that day.
*
The first dungeon template vanished into the Aetherium Core that I held in my hand. It was the size of an egg and would only get bigger the more it upgraded. One of the items within the random gift box had been a template. An arrangement of a dungeon system from the game. The other two were one Upgraded dungeon template and an Advanced dungeon template.
Aetherium Cores were like huge batteries, controlled by a soul, guided by the dungeon system, and powered by the energies around it or in the case of these cores, the energy provided. Thin strands of black flowed from the nothingness and into the first core. This turned it black as obsidian.
> [BOOST DUNGEON CORE]
By supplying a soul into the core it lit up. Going from pure black to a void with a star at its center. A red box appeared below me asking for a suitable position.
'Been a while since I saw one of those'. The last time I used such a mechanism was when making my palace.
I was standing in said palace or to be more precise outside in the fields of the palace. Making sure to carefully set the core apart from any of the traps she activated it. Her children would get to run these dungeons while the players took those below. The placement sent a thrum of light within the location before I was pulled down and into the dungeon.
I appeared inside a cave where the black orb that was the dungeon core floated. It was right at the height of my abdomen, its light illuminating the space in the cave
I set my hands on the core as I completed the last part of the work. A flash of letters ran into my mind the moment my hands made contact.
> [ACTIVATING CORE]
> [COMMENCING DUNGEON CRAFTING]
> [SOUL SET -> DUNGEON MASTER]
> [DUNGEON TEMPLATE SET]
> [DUNGEON TYPE ASCERTAINED]
> [INSTANCE DUNGEON]
> A pocket dimension cut in the fabric of reality. One can enter and leave only in the same location. Those within the dungeon in different groups are taken to separate pocket dimensions having the same design.
For the dungeon, the template had come with the instance dungeon type. The prompt faded as around me the cave vanished
> [DUNGEON CORE ROOM]
The system informed me of what this place was. I nodded a bit before continuing. A miniaturized holographic image of a rectangular space appeared before me, then it vanished turning the dungeon into a hellscape. Red fires burned all over. Forests and fields of flames as well as mountains appeared in the hologram.
It would have been Sol if not for how different the flames here were. Insidious and harsh.
As a basic dungeon, the highest level it had for difficulty was fifty. However, even that could be reduced or left at its max of fifty.
Two partitions formed creating three zones. The beginner zone was a forest. It spanned a good few miles before the first partition came. A safe zone with a pond where the fire didn't reach.
After the pond came a desert. Calling it a desert was mild. The golden sands burned as hot as fire. At night it would be red like embers. Thin lines of cracks speared over the ground surface. Just like the first zone, it went far to another safe zone.
A little empty village where one could amend gear and restock on whatever I could make available by then.
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No way I wasn't profiting from this. My children or not.
'I'm like some business mogul now' I chuckled at the thought.
The third and final zone was a stretch of rocky mountains and crags overflowing with lava and ash clouds. Several pathways led to the end of the dungeon where a cavern mouth would take the challengers inside a volcano's base.
There they would meet a boss. That was all to it.
> [Dungeon Creatures
> [Levels 1 - 50]
A list of variations from the system came before my eyes.
> [Ira Crawler]
> [Embered Molv ]
> [Scaled Imp ]
> [Winged Sprayer]
> [Gurser - Flame Fragment ]
> [Dire Molv]
> [Huska Rat]
The options were all creatures that fell under the Lv1 to Lv50 threshold.
> [Ira Crawler - Lv1 - x20 - Zone 1]
> [Wimged Sprayer - Lv1 - x12 - Zone 1]
> [Scaled Imp - Lv16 - x10 - Zone 2]
> [Dire Molv - Lv16 - x 10 - Zone 2]
> [Ira Crawler - Lv16 - x5 - Zone 2]
> [Winged Sprayer - Lv16 - x5 - Zone 2]
> [Huska Rat - Lv31 - x15 - Zone 3]
> [Dire Molv - Lv31 - x6 - Zone 3]
> [Scaled Imp - Lv31 - x5 - Zone 3]
> [Embered Molv - Lv31 - x10 - Zone 3]
> [Gurser - Lv31 - x5 - Zone 3]
> [Embered Molv - Lv45 - Zone 3]
> [Gurser- Flame Bearer - Lv 50 - Zone 3]
I blinked at the sight of a Gurser in the options. The space around me rumbled the next moment as all the settings clicked into place.
> [Name dungeon]
"Hell's Gate" I already thought it out. Best to give my children an idea or warning. If they failed to be prepared, not my fault.
A thrum spread from the core as it took on a brighter form. Then I watched as everything expanded, as motes of lights tore from the core and flew off in various directions.
The howls and growls of the fiery creatures of the Tartarean rifts, the low leveled atleast, resounded through Hell's Gate. Then I saw the craziest things. New features showed up. Black skies, black rivers, and even the creatures spotting new skin and looks.
'The energy powering the core is also affecting the dungeon features'.
Finally, I got a last prompt to set the respawn location for challengers. Challengers could not be spawned by the core. So I set one respawn core at the dungeon entrance. The gold stone right at the cavern mouth was stuck into the ground where it created a circle with runic symbols around it into the ground.
[BASIC DUNGEON - HELL'S GATE]
[LOCATION ENTRANCE - LUNAR GARDEN]
[DUNGEON TYPE - INSTANCE]
[CORE CHARGE - 1000/1000]
[ENERGY TYPE - NOTHINGNESS]
[CORE TIER - 0]
[ZONE - 3/3]
[RESPAWN CORE - 1/3]
I could set three cores, one for the entrance and one for each of the safe zones. Those brats would end me if I hindered their progress.
Pushing intent through the dungeon core I looked through how exactly it would work.
First, there were the rewards to be provided. Something that would be handled by the Elves in my warehouse. Yes. They would be the ones to check and judge the right reward for any feat or accomplishment in any dungeon or any setting.
The shards gotten from the slain creatures were used to power my children while my children's shards became another source of energy for the dungeon to add to its mob. Meaning if Freyr fell in here then his siblings would have death or destruction beasts to contend with.
Of course, there was a tax rate gotten from the dungeon. Since I needed shards, MVC, exp, and ORP the dungeons would pay me a percentage of their gains in each challenge. That Plus it would need to pay for continuous access to the energy that powered it. Also, the dungeon could still get shards by selling any weapons formed within it. And of course, I still had a percentage of the gains.
Even the challengers had to pay taxes too. Since the creatures were System brought in ones they were technically outer realm entities. Which meant I would get the ORP points for every slain creature no matter how small while the challengers kept their shards and experience. The ORP gotten would be bigger though in case of a total wipeout of the creatures. This was advantageous since somehow the system seemed to be encouraging wiping them out.
"Basically dumping them into my backyard for me to clean up the trash". I shook my head.
The Dungeon core pulls in new creatures from the outer realm after a wipeout, all at the same level as the wiped-out former group or around. It was hard to wipe out a group though since one would have to wipe out the group and then kill a powerful boss.
If the creature died it would lose its entire energy which got split into shards. One to the challenger and one to the dungeon while the challenger also got experience for the kill. When a challenger died he, fortunately, got a respawn but as a death penalty lost a level. The level would be a bit of his stats lost as power which the creature and dungeon would split.
Since my kids were my Primordials that meant their power loss was both miniscule to them and immense to the dungeon.
But it was even worse since unlike the challenger who could only use the shard for something else the creature would absorb and grow not just in level but also in power or divinity attained from the challenger.
"Better create the others then figure out a good market for the shards. I'm certain the others can use the shards but I doubt they can use them for the same thing I can. " I paused.
What if they could? Who said only creators could have living armor and Holy Flame armor?
It was unlikely they could have an Unborn since they needed Divine Purity to do so or Holy Flame armor. But in the case they could, I had to earn from it. Which meant that I needed to control the market.
I wasn't sure how the coming players' activities would go but one thing was certain. Levels. Powers and gears.
The dungeons would control that and earn profit whether they won or lost. While also training my kids in real combat. The gears sold in the village would be bought by them or whatever they entered with.
I could see Ozai and Freyr entering with their angels.
'Angels and Leghna'. Akasha corrected.
"Do I want to know?".
'Freyr has decided to stand opposite to whatever his brother is'. I sighed but turned back to what I was observing.
With my children buying things for their cohort or whatever they challenged the dungeon with, I could make more money. It made me smile. The dungeons in the realms had a neat similar principle with the only difference being the beasts in the dungeons were made by the dungeon itself. It meant unlike the system dungeon my dungeons actually aimed to win as losing shards was losing funds. Killing the players or their cohorts was earning funds.
Hopefully, the dungeons found a way to min-max their losses and gains. Just like the cores in my gardens, the cores in the realms were powered by realm energies. But there was a difference. Something that I both used as a challenge and a problem for the players if they weren't careful.
With the river carrying the energies of the 9 Realms, it also spilled them into each realm as a stream and leyline. It was this stream or leyline that powered the cores. Just as the one here, this made it so the features of each dungeon was affected or determined by its energy reservoir.
The economics of shards and experience worked the same but since these were not outer realm creatures it meant I didn't get points for it. The tax system worked the same though so it was okay. That and the fact that anytime a player died there was a loot drop effect.
'Scammer'.
"Shh. They have to pay for my greatness". Still, I couldn't help but agree that somehow I had turned into some business mogul.' I commented again. I didn't know if I liked it or not.
'And I'm not even bothered by the thought of the players' arrival either. Am I okay now?' it was a question for thought. Hopefully, the answer would be affirmative. I would dislike appearing before a lot of players and turning into a shivering mess.
'Back to the dungeons.'